Convertible bullkhead for refrigerator cars



Aug. 4, 1942. A. F. OCONNOR CONVERTIBLE BULKHEAD FOR REFRIGERATOR CARS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 20, 1941 O O O O O O O O" O O O O O O O a 1;"1; aw -ms"- on H o. o

5 WNW IN VENT OR.

Aug. ,1942. A, F. Q CQNNQR 2,292,009

CONVERTIBLE BULKHEAD FOR REFRIGERATOR CARS Filed Oct. 20, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1N VENTOR.

Patented Aug. 4, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONVERTIBLE BULKHEAD FOR REFRIGER- ATOR CARS Application October 20, 1941, Serial No. 415,695

9 Claims.

The invention relates to refrigerator cars and more particularly to refrigerator cars having a transverse bulkhead defining one wall of a refrigerant compartment or ice bunker, said bulkhead bein movable to a stored position parallel with and closely adjacent the end wall of the car when the ice bunker is not required. The invention relates particularly to the type of movable bulkhead shown and described in my pending application Serial No. 315,644, filed January 26, 1940, wherein the bulkhead is suspended on rollers which travel on track members secured to the side walls of the car and has for its principal object the provision of improved means for anchoring the bulkhead (at its lower portion) in extended position.

The conventional method of securing the lower margins of convertible bulkheads has been generally by the use of slide bolts secured to the bulkhead and being adapted to engage slots or apertures in an adjacent fixed portion of the car. Due to the horizontal forces applied to both faces of the bulkhead, in service, these slide bolts have proven unsatisfactory due to bending, breaking and otherwise becoming inoperative.

An object of the invention is to provide bulkhead locking members of great strength and light weight in order to resist bending and distortion when the bulkhead is subjected to horizontal blows and forces, as by the shifting of the car lading or the shifting of the ice load against the bulkhead during switching operations of the car in service.

Another object is the provision of bulkhead locking means which may be pivotally secured to the ice grate, whereby said locking means may be folded into a stored position at the same time that the ice grate is swung to stored position.

Another object is the provision of improved locking means which may support the free end of the hinged ice grates whereby a considerable part of the weight of the ice on the grates may be supported by a portion of the car other than the suspended bulkhead, thereby minimizing the weight which must be supported by the bulkhead rollers.

A further object is to provide combined ice grate supporting and bulkhead anchoring members which are economical to manufacture and which are operatively secured to the car in a head anchoring means which may be pivotally secured to the swingable ice grates in'a manner whereby the load of the ice grates and ice will not be supported entirely by the bolt members which are used to pivotally mount the anchoring members on the ice grates.

Another object is to provide bulkhead anchoring means secured to the ice grates in a manner whereby they may be folded into telescoping engagement with said ice grates.

A further object is to provide a support for the free edge of the swingable ice grates and anchoring means for the lower portion of the bulkhead which may be placed in operative position simultaneously.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken along line l-l of Fig. 2, showing the ice grates and the bulkhead anchoring and grate supporting legs in operative position.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary vertical section taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section of the end portion of the car, taken along line 2-2 of Fig. 1, with the bulkhead, ice grates and grate legs in stored position.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section taken along line 4-4 of Fig. 2', showing the ice grates in operative lowered position and the grate legs in operative holding position.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective View of a portion of the bulkhead sill, the supporting bracket for the sill and aperture in the sill for receiving the ice grate leg.

In the drawings, the reference numeral l0 indicates the end wall of the car; [2 indicates the side wall and I4 indicates the car floor, all of which may be of conventional insulated construction. The ice bunker I6 is separated from a lading compartment [8 by the bulkhead 2B. When the bulkhead 20 is in extended position, as best shown in Fig. 2, it may be in a plane with a bulkhead sill 22 which may be rigidly affixed to the car floor structure. The lading compartment l8 may be provided with the usual floor racks 24 adapted to support the lading in spaced overlying relationship with the car floor, in order to provide an air duct 26 between the lading and the car floor. A floor rack extension 28 may be provided intermediate the sill 22 and the car end I0 and may comprise a plurality of spaced apart slats supported in spaced overlying relationship with the ice bunker floor 30 by means of a plurality of beams 32. The beams 32 may be secured adjacent their end portions to the sill brackets 38 and to supporting brackets 34 adjacent the end wall of the car as best shown in Fig. 2. The fioor rack extension 28 is adapted to provide a continuation of the floor racks 24 toward the end of the car whereby, when the bulkhead is in stored position at the end of the car and the lading compartment lengthened, it may provide a flush lading floor throughout the lading compartment, to accommodate the use of wheeled trucks during car loading. The upper surfaces of the floor racks 2d, the sill 22 and floor rack extension 28 are also preferably in a single plane in order to prevent offsets in the lading floor which might interfere with the orderly stacking of boxes, cartons, etc., of uniform sizes.

The sill 22 may comprise an elongated plate extending transversely of the car and may be provided with a stiffening fiange 36 along one or both of its longitudinal margins and may be supported above the car floor by a plurality of supporting brackets 38 which may comprise substantially U-shaped metallic members secured rigidly to the car floor structure by bolts or other suitable fasteners, and the brackets 38 may be secured to the sill 22 by means of welding or riveting. The sill 22 may be provided with apertures 43 adapted to permit the descending chilled air to pass through the sill.

The bulkhead 23 may comprise a plurality of foraminated metal sheet sections 62 disposed in planar alignment transversely of the car and provided with flanged vertical margins 44 against and upon which margins may be mounted a wooden apron 56 in spaced relationship with the foraminated sheet sections 42. The bulkhead 253 may be provided at opposed vertical margins with a channel-shaped metallic member 43, the channel of which faces toward the end of the car, and it may also be provided with vertically extending metallic channel members 50 intermediate certain of the adjacent sheet sections 42 with the channels opening upon the ice bunker side of the bulkhead. The channel members as and 52 may be bolted or otherwise secured in abutting engagement with the adjacent flanged margins 24 whereby channel members as and B and the sheet sections 42 will comprise a unitary metal panel extending transversely of the car. The structure of said unitary metal panel, as described thus far, is not claimed as part of the present invention and it will be understood that the upper portion of said panel may be similar to that shown in my pending application before mentioned, and the bulkhead 20 may be supported on rollers in any of the conventional ways to permit its movement toward and away from the end wall of the car.

The ice grate 52 may comprise one or more sections but I prefer to use a plurality of sections for convenience in movin the ice grate from one position to another. The ice grate 52 may comprise a plurality of parallel spaced apart bars 5 5 set on edge and provided with a plurality of spaced apart parallel slats 56 disposed perpendicularly with respect to and secured adjacent their end portions to the spaced apart bars 54. The end portions of the bars 54 may be pivotally and swingably secured, adjacent one margin of the ice grate 52, to the end wall of the car. The opposite end portions of the bars 54 may be swingable from a vertical stored position to a horizontal operative position within the channel portions of the bulkhead members 48 and 50. The last named end portions of the bars 54 may be provided with pivoted and foldable supporting legs 53 adapted to assume a position perpendicular to the bars 54 when in operative position and adapted to assume a telescoped position with relation to the bars 54 when in stored position. The leg 53 may comprise a metallic U-shaped elongated member secured at its upper end portion to the bar 5 3 by means of a rivet or other suitable pivot member 69 whereby the end portion of bar 54 will be between the parallel spaced portions of the leg 58.

When the bulkhead 29 is in extended, ice bunker forming position, and the ice grate 52 is in horizontal position, the supporting leg 58 is adapted to assume a substantially nested position within the channel portion of and extending parallel with the bulkhead member 48 or 59, the lower end portion of the leg 58 extending downwardly through an aperture 62 in the sill 22 and an aligned aperture in the bracket 33. The lower extremity of the leg 58 may be supported upon the beam 32 when the ice grate is in operative position. The lower end portions of bulkhead members 138 and 50 may be made in the form of a box section adapted to provide sockets through which the legs 58 may slide as the ice grate is lowered to operative position and as a means of maintaining the lower portion of the bulkhead in predetermined anchored position when the bulkhead is in operative ice supporting position. I prefer to make this box section or socket by rigidly afiixing a relatively short metal plate 64 to the lower end portion of bulkhead member 43 and 5!] in position to substantially close the opening into the channel portions of said bulkhead members and the upper portion of plate 64 may be inclined outwardly from the bulkhead to provide means for guiding the end of the leg 58 into the socket.

The bulkhead member 59 may be wider than the bulkhead member it in order to accommodate two of the legs 58 and the lower end thereof may be reinforced by a plate member 66 adapted to divide the socket into two compartments. Plate member 56 may extend at right angle to the plate 64 and may be welded adjacent its vertical margins to the plate 61! and to the web of the bulkhead channel member 59.

It will be noted that the Weight of the ice supported upon the ice grate of the invention is supported almost entirely by the grate legs 53 and the end wall of the car, whereas in the prior constructions the free margin of the swingable ice grates was supported by the buLkhead. An important object of my invention is to minimize the load supported upon the bulkhead rollers. The bulkhead is necessarily of heavy construction in order to resist the severe stresses to which it is subjected in service and the weight of same is about all that ordinary bulkhead rollers can consistently support. In order to minimize the weight resting upon the pivot members 68, the end portion of the bars 54 may be provided with laterally extending lugs 63 adapted to rest upon the upper end of leg 58 when said leg is in ice grate supporting position.

I claim:

1. In a refrigerator car having a bulkhead movable longitudinally of the car, means for anchoring said bulkhead in a predetermined position comprising a swingable ice grate mounted upon a wall of the car, and a leg swingably mounted upon said grate adapted for interlocking holding engagement with said bulkhead and the floor structure of the car, whereby to hold said bulkhead against movement in either direction longitudinally of the car.

2. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a wall of an ice bunker, an ice grate swingably mounted upon a wall of the car, and a supporting leg swingably mounted upon said grate adapted for interlocking holding engagement with the bulkhead and the floor structure of the car, whereby to secure said bulkhead against movement in either direction longitudinally of the car.

3. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a wall of an ice bunker, a sill affixed to the car floor in parallel underlying relationship with said bulkhead, an ice grate swingably mounted upon a wall of the car, a leg swingably mounted upon said grate adapted for interlocking holding engagement with said bulkhead and said sill whereby said leg and said bulkhead will be maintained in predetermined position longitudinally of the car.

4. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a wall of an ice bunker and having a detent adjacent its lower margin, a detent associated with the car floor structure, an ice grate pivotally and swingably mounted upon a wall of the car, a grate supporting leg pivotally and swingably mounted upon the grate, said grate being swingable from a stored vertical position to a horizontal operative position, at which last named position said leg will assume an interlocking holding engagement with the bulkhead detent and the detent of the floor structure.

5. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a wall of an ice bunker and provided with a vertically extending channel portion opening upon the ice bunker, an ice grate pivotally and swingably mounted upon a wall of the car provided with arms projecting laterally from the free edge of said grate, a leg pivotally and swingably mounted upon one of said arms adapted for interlocking holding engagement with said bulkhead and with the floor structure of the car, said arms and said leg being substantially within said channel portion when the ice grate is in operative ice supporting position.

6. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a wall of an ice bunker, an ice grate pivotally and swingably mounted upon a wall of the car, a grate supporting leg pivotally and swingably mounted upon said grate, a laterally extending lug afiixed to that portion of the grate to which said leg is pivoted adapted to transmit a portion of the load upon the grate to a portion of said leg other than the pivot member, said leg being adapted to support said grate and having holding interlocking engagement with said bulkhead and with the car floor structure whereby the lower portions of said bulkhead and said leg may be anchored in a predetermined position longitudinally of the car.

7. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a Wall of an ice bunker, an ice grate pivotally secured to a wall of said car provided with a pivoted leg adjacent its free margin, a sill afiixed to the car floor in parallel underlying relationship with said bulkhead provided with a detent, a support associated with said sill intermediate said sill and the car floor, said leg being supported by said support when the ice grate is in ice holding position and having interlocking holding engagement with said bulkhead and said detent.

8. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a wall of an ice bunker, an ice grate pivotally and swingably mounted upon a wall of the car, a leg pivotally and swingably secured to said ice grate adjacent the free margin thereof adapted to form a support for said ice grate and to form a locking means between the bulkhead and the car floor structure whereby said bulkhead will be anchored in predetermined position longitudinally of the car.

9. In a refrigerator car having a movable bulkhead forming a wall of an ice bunker, an ice grate pivotally and swingably mounted upon a wall of the car, a leg pivotally and swingably secured to said ice grate adjacent the free edge thereof adapted to form a support between the car floor structure and said ice grate, said bulkhead being adapted to abut said leg when in one position whereby a thrust received by the bulkhead will be transmitted to the said wall of the car through said leg and said ice grate.

ARTHUR F. OGONNOR. 

